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Seismic Waves
Macovei Alin Mihai
Civil Enginnering, Technical University, Iai, 700050, Romania
Summary
Seismic waves are the vibrations from earthquakes that travel through the Earth.
They are the waves of energy suddenly created by rock fracture within the earth or
an explosion. They are the energy that travels through the earth and is recorded on
seismographs.
When you look at a seismogram the wiggles you see are an indication that the
ground is being, or was, vibrated by seismic waves. Seismic waves are propagating
vibrations that carry energy from the source of the shaking outward in all
directions. You can picture this concept by recalling the circular waves that spread
over the surface of a pond when a stone is thrown into the water. An earthquake is
a more complicated process than a stone splashing into water, and the seismic
waves that are set up during an earthquake are more varied than those on the
pond.
1. INTRODUCTION
The are many different seismic waves, but all of basically of four types:
Compressional or P (for primary) ,Transverse or S (for secondary), Love, Rayleigh
An earthquake radiates P and S waves in all directions and the interaction of the P
and S waves with Earth's surface and shallow structure produces surface waves.
Near an earthquake the shaking is large and dominated by shear-waves and shortperiod surface waves. These are the waves that do the most damage to our
buildings, highways, etc. Even in large earthquakes the intense shaking generally
lasts only a few tens of seconds, but it can last for minutes in the greatest
earthquakes. At farther distances the amplitude of the seismic waves decreases as
the energy released by the earthquake spreads throughout a larger volume of Earth.
Also with increasing distance from the earthquake, the waves are separated apart in
time and dispersed because P, S, and surface waves travel at different speeds.
Seismic waves can be distinguished by a number of properties including the speed
the waves travel, the direction that the waves move particles as they pass by, where
and where they don't propagate. We'll go through each wave type individually to
expound upon the differences.
The first two wave types, P and S , are called body waves because they travel or
propagate through the body of Earth. The latter two are called surface waves they
the travel along Earth's surface and their amplitude decreases with depth into
Earth.
3. COMPRESSIONAL OR P-WAVES
P-waves are the first waves to arrive on a complete record of ground shaking
because they travel the fastest (their name derives from this fact - P is an
abbreviation for primary, first wave to arrive). They typically travel at speeds
between ~1 and ~14 km/sec. The slower values corresponds to a P-wave traveling
in water, the higher number represents the P-wave speed near the base of Earth's
mantle.
The velocity of a wave depends on the elastic properties and density of a material.
If we let k represent the bulk modulus of a material, m the shear-modulus, and r the
density, then the P-wave velocity.
A modulus is a measure of how easy or difficulty it is to deforms a material. For
example, the bulk modulus is a measure of how a material changes volume when
pressure is applied and is a characteristic of a material. For example, foam rubber
has a lower bulk modulus than steel.
P-waves are sound waves, it's just that in seismology we are interested in
frequencies that are lower than humans' range of hearing (the speed of sound in air
is about 0.3 km/sec). The vibration caused by P waves is a volume change,
alternating from compression to expansion in the direction that the wave is
traveling. P-waves travel through all types of media - solid, liquid, or gas.
4.S-WAVES
Secondary , or S waves, travel slower than P waves and are also called "shear"
waves because they don't change the volume of the material through which they
propagate, they shear it. S-waves are transverse waves because they vibrate the
ground in a the direction "transverse", or perpendicular, to the direction that the
wave is traveling.
Even though they are slower than P-waves, the S-waves move quickly. Typical Swave propagation speeds are on the order of 1 to 8 km/sec. The lower value
corresponds to the wave speed in loose, unconsolidated sediment, the higher value
is near the base of Earth's mantle.
An important distinguishing characteristic of an S-wave is its inability to propagate
through a fluid or a gas because a fluids and gasses cannot transmit a shear stress
and S-waves are waves that shear the material.
In general, earthquakes generate larger shear waves than compressional waves and
much of the damage close to an earthquake is the result of strong shaking caused
by shear waves.
6. LOVE WAVES
Love waves are transverse waves that vibrate the ground in the horizontal direction
perpendicular to the direction that the waves are traveling. They are formed by the
interaction of S waves with Earth's surface and shallow structure and are dispersive
waves. The speed at which a dispersive wave travels depends on the wave's period.
In general, earthquakes generate Love waves over a range of periods from 1000 to
a fraction of a second, and each period travels at a different velocity but the typical
range of velocities is between 2 and 6 km/second.
7. RAYLEIGH WAVES
Rayleigh waves are the slowest of all the seismic wave types and in some ways the
most complicated. Like Love waves they are dispersive so the particular speed at
which they travel depends on the wave period and the near-surface geologic
structure, and they also decrease in amplitude with depth. Typical speeds for
Rayleigh waves are on the order of 1 to 5 km/s.
9. REFRACTION
As a wave travels through Earth, the path it takes depends on the velocity. Perhaps
you recall from high school a principle called Snell's law, which is the
When waves reach a boundary between different rock types, part of the
energy is transmitted across the boundary. The transmitted wave travels in a
different direction which depends on the ratio of velocities of the two rock
types. Part of the energy is also reflected backwards into the region with
Rock Type 1, but I haven't shown that on this diagram.
Refraction has an important affect on waves that travel through Earth. In general,
the seismic velocity in Earth increases with depth (there are some important
exceptions to this trend) and refraction of waves causes the path followed by body
waves to curve upward.
The overall increase in seismic wave speed with depth into Earth produces
an upward curvature to rays that pass through the mantle. A notable
exception is caused by the decrease in velocity from the mantle to the core.
This speed decrease bends waves backwards and creates a "P-wave Shadow
Zone" between about 100 and 140 distance (1 = 111.19 km).
10. REFLECTION
The second wave interaction with variations in rock type is reflection. I am sure
that you are familiar with reflected sound waves; we call them echoes. And your
reflection in a mirror or pool of water is composed of reflected light waves. In
seismology, reflections are used to prospect for petroleum and investigate Earth's
internal structure. In some instances reflections from the boundary between the
mantle and crust may induce strong shaking that causes damage about 100 km
from an earthquake (we call that boundary the "Moho" in honor of Mohorovicic,
the scientist who discovered it).
A seismic reflection occurs when a wave impinges on a change in rock type (which
usually is accompanied by a change in seismic wave speed). Part of the energy
carried by the incident wave is transmitted through the material (that's the refracted
wave described above) and part is reflected back into the medium that contained
the incident wave.
11. DISPERSION
10
I mentioned above that surface waves are dispersive - which means that different
periods travel at different velocities. The effects of dispersion become more
noticeable with increasing distance because the longer travel distance spreads the
energy out (it disperses the energy). Usually, the long periods arrive first since they
are sensitive to the speeds deeper in Earth, and the deeper regions are generally
faster.